Readings: Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 5:7-9; John 12:20-33
Good Afternoon --
“Give me justice, O God,
and
plead my cause against a nation that is faithless.
From the deceitful and cunning
rescue me, for you,
O God, are my strength.”
Those words are from the entrance antiphon for today’s Mass.
So we ask: what is justice? How do we define it, how do we live it? Well, it
should be obvious that justice comes from the mind and word of God. And those
who seek to remove him from society, as many are doing today, are seeking to
remove truth and justice from the land.
In our first reading today we hear of God’s first
covenant with his people made through Moses. God gave us commands etched in stone. And, as
we know, the Israelites over and over again failed to live up to their part of
the bargain, and paid dearly for their failures.
That is why the prophet Jeremiah prophesized a New
Covenant, which would be written – not on stone tablets – but on the hearts of
men. What is written there is the message of the cross, redemption, and our own
death to the allurements of this world so as to achieve life in Christ. “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground
and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat, but if it dies, it products much
fruit.”
I don’t think you have to be a great biblical scholar or
theologian to understand today’s message of a seed dying to produce more fruit.
I think we can see that in the state of our polarized society, in which worldly
success is considered the true and only measure of a person, and where the
concept of dying to self to follow a sandal-wearing first century prophet marks
one as some type of fraud or freak, to be cancelled and marginalized.
Thus to follow Jesus today oft times puts us at odds with
today’s secular society; one which offers little in the way of truth or justice.
True success, we are told, is to follow the crowd and live life on your own
terms, to your own satisfaction. Unfortunately, we see all too often the
results of that teaching: sexual depravity, abortion, attacks on religion and
the family, gender confusion, and a litany of offenses against the holy name of
Jesus and his Church.
If we examine the message of society and its teaching on
the High Idolatry of “me first” we can see, if only we care to look, the
destruction that has been done to the psyche of the American soul. Too many
people are living pointless lives, not moored to anything beyond their own
wants – not “needs” but “wants” – those things that will bring us only pleasure
for pleasure’s sake.
Just look around us; how many souls are being lost of
those whose only desire is for pleasure? Or are in willful ignorance of what
the truth really is? How many of us know of friends and families that have been
touched by suicide – especially that of a young person – who cannot find
fulfilment in this life and just wants out; or the person who can only find truth
by ingesting substances that gives them a euphoric feeling?
So what is “just” about allowing them, sometimes even
encouraging them, or even worse, ignoring their plight on their road to perdition?
And what is “just” about the new wave of old ideologies,
such as Socialism and Marxism, condemned by the Church, that embrace material
atheism, violence for in support of social justice, and encourages the pursuit
of personal interests and power over the common good, and devalues human life?
These are only some of the matters that popes, bishops,
and the entire Church have been warning us about since the time of Pope Leo
XIII. Yet, unfortunately, for many those warnings have gone in one ear and out
the other, and we find ourselves in what could be described as a neo-pagan era
where so many of the sins of the past are lining up to pave our own way to
perdition.
All you need to do is to take an objective look at
today’s society: you see racial divides, violence and hate in our streets, attempts
to lure our children into alternative life styles, pornography everywhere and
the list goes on, and on, and on.
So how do we get back to a just society, one that
recognizes true Christian truth and justice? How do we exit from this
predicament and stem the counter-cultural tides that are fighting for control
of society and our souls?
The answer begins with us, each one of us – individually
and collectively. The first thing we need to do is to read in our hearts the
law that has been placed there by God, where we can know him, and where he
will, in the words of the prophet, “forgive
our evildoing and remember their sin no more.”
Forgiveness, of course, requires repentance and that is
what this season is about. In the first part of today’s Gospel the Greeks came
“to see” Jesus. What is it that we are “seeing” right now? What is it that in
these last two weeks of Lent we can find in ourselves that needs repair? What
is it that we can remove that will allow us to live more freely in God’s life
and love?
What is it in us that is the worst in ourselves that we
need to die to, in order to find new life and meaning in the Gospel message? The
scriptures tell us that God will heal us and our land if we only turn to him,
admit our sins, and ask forgiveness. As we approach Holy Week and our
celebration of Christ’s death and resurrection it is a good time for our own
confession, to die in the confessional with him, and to rise with him on Easter
Sunday. Thus we can amend our lives and, in the words of today’s collect, “walk eagerly in that same charity with
which, out of love for the world, your Son handed himself over to death.”
We can and should use this time to cleanse ourselves and
to stand up for the just truth in our part of the world as we pray in the words
of today’s psalmist:
“Thoroughly
wash me from my guilt and of my sin cleanse me.
A clean heart create for me O God,
and
a steadfast spirit renew within me. …
Give me back the joy of your
salvation,
And a willing spirit
sustain in me.
I will teach transgressors your
ways,
And sinners shall return
to you.”
Deacon Mike Manno, St. Augustin Parish, Des Moines
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